CAIRO — The African Export-Import Bank, Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund and Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy Authority have signed an agreement to provide $10 million for preparing priority projects under the country’s 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme.
The Joint Project Preparation Facility Framework Agreement is intended to help move projects from the planning stage to investment readiness by funding technical, financial, legal and advisory work, the organizations said Friday.
Ghana’s broader 24H+ investment pipeline is currently valued at about $11.5 billion, according to the authority. Projects supported by the new facility will be selected through a joint screening and approval process.
Afreximbank and the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, known as GIIF, will each initially contribute $5 million to the facility.
“This JPPF will play a catalytic role in translating Ghana’s 24H+ vision into projects that attract capital, expand exports and create jobs,” said Kanayo Awani, Afreximbank’s executive vice president for intra-African trade and export development.
“By combining Afreximbank’s project-development and capital-mobilisation expertise, GIIF’s local investment capability and the 24-Hour Economy Authority’s coordinating mandate, we will accelerate priority projects, strengthen Ghanaian project preparation capacity and build a sustained pipeline of investment-ready transactions,” she said.
The agreement was signed by Awani on behalf of Afreximbank, GIIF Chief Executive Nana Dwemoh Benneh and Augustus Obuadum Tanoh, the presidential adviser on the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development.
Under the arrangement, the 24-Hour Economy Authority will identify strategic projects and coordinate government stakeholders. GIIF will provide local project origination and infrastructure investment expertise, while Afreximbank will contribute project-preparation and capital-mobilization capabilities.
The parties will jointly screen and prioritize projects for support.
The 24H+ program is designed as a production-led, private-sector-driven economic agenda aimed at positioning Ghana as a competitive production and export hub. Its eight pillars cover agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure, creative industries and tourism, logistics, finance, skills and national mobilization.
The project preparation facility is expected to support initiatives in energy and infrastructure, logistics and digital connectivity, industrial parks, manufacturing and agro-processing, minerals beneficiation, tourism, creative industries and health care.
The facility will also include an institutional-development program for GIIF, including training, knowledge transfer, capacity building and staff secondments. The initiative is intended to expand GIIF’s ability to originate, structure and manage future infrastructure projects without relying exclusively on external expertise.
Benneh said the partnership would strengthen GIIF’s role in developing infrastructure projects under the 24-hour economy program.
“The partnership reinforces GIIF’s role as an infrastructure finance partner to the 24-Hour Economy and strengthens our ability to advance priority projects from concept to investment readiness,” he said.
“Beyond the US$10 million commitment to project preparation, a key value of the JPPF is its capacity-building component,” Benneh said, adding that training and staff secondments would help deepen GIIF’s ability to develop bankable projects and attract private capital.
Tanoh said the facility would focus on turning government priorities into projects capable of attracting financing.
“The 24H+ Programme is delivered through transformational projects, and a project attracts capital only when it is properly prepared,” Tanoh said.
“This Facility will help translate Ghana’s development priorities into well-structured, bankable projects that expand productive capacity, improve workforce productivity, increase exports and create sustainable jobs,” he said.
Tanoh said the authority plans to bring projects in energy, agro-industry, manufacturing and logistics to the facility, with the goal of moving them from initial concepts through construction.
Afreximbank said the partnership could also serve as a model for similar project-preparation arrangements elsewhere in Africa. Awani said the agreement’s potential for replication could encourage stronger project-preparation standards across the continent.
The facility is also intended to support Ghana’s integration into the African Continental Free Trade Area by developing projects that expand production, exports and trade-enabling infrastructure.
Afreximbank, a Cairo-based pan-African multilateral financial institution, finances and promotes intra- and extra-African trade. The bank reported total assets and contingencies of more than $48.5 billion and shareholder funds of $8.4 billion at the end of 2025.
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